Protection — what does it mean?
Can't be blocked, targeted, equipped, or damaged by whatever it has protection from.
Protection appears on 206 cards.
How does Protection work?
Protection always comes with a quality: protection from black, from creatures, from a player, from everything. What it does fits in four letters: DEBT. Damage: all damage from sources with that quality is prevented. Enchanting/Equipping: Auras with that quality can't be attached, and Equipment with that quality can't equip this permanent. Blocking: creatures with that quality can't block this creature when it attacks. Targeting: spells with that quality and abilities from sources with that quality can't target it.
What protection doesn't do matters just as much. Effects that don't target and don't deal damage still hit it: destroy all creatures, each player sacrifices a creature, all creatures get -2/-2. Untargeted damage is still prevented, though. A red spell that deals 3 damage to each creature does nothing to a creature with protection from red. And a creature with protection from red can still block a red creature; the red creature's damage to it is prevented.
Creatures often gain protection in response, from an instant. If it was the only target of a spell, that target is illegal when the spell tries to resolve, so the spell doesn't resolve. Auras with that quality already attached go to the graveyard. Equipment with that quality becomes unattached but stays on the battlefield. If a creature gains protection after it's already blocked, the block stays, but damage from that blocker is prevented.
An example at the table
Your opponent casts a black removal spell targeting your white 2/2. You respond with an instant that gives your 2/2 protection from black until end of turn. When the removal spell tries to resolve, your 2/2 is no longer a legal target, so nothing happens. In your combat you attack. Your opponent has a black 4/4 and a green 1/1. The 4/4 can't block. If the 1/1 blocks, you deal 2 damage to it and it dies, while your 2/2 takes 1 and survives.
Cards with Protection
Yawgmoth, Thran PhysicianIllustration: Mark Winters
Karmic GuideIllustration: Allen Williams
Stonecoil SerpentIllustration: Mark Poole
Emrakul, the Promised EndIllustration: Jaime Jones
Animar, Soul of ElementsIllustration: Filip BurburanCommon mistakes
- Thinking protection shields against everything of that color. An untargeted destroy-all or sacrifice effect still gets it, even if that spell has the stated color.
- Thinking a creature with protection from red can't block red creatures. It can, and the red creature's damage to it is prevented.
- Thinking Equipment with the stated quality goes to the graveyard. It becomes unattached and stays on the battlefield. Only Auras go to the graveyard.
- Thinking a trampler can ignore a blocker with protection. You still have to assign lethal damage to that blocker, even though it'll be prevented.
Frequently asked questions
- Does protection save a creature from a board wipe?
- Not if the wipe destroys, exiles, or gives -X/-X without targeting. If the wipe deals damage and has the stated quality, that damage is prevented.
- What's the difference between protection and hexproof?
- Hexproof only stops opponents from targeting it. Protection works against anything with the stated quality, including your own, and also covers damage, blocking, Auras, and Equipment.
- Can I target my own creature that has protection?
- Not with a spell or ability that has the stated quality. Protection doesn't care who controls the spell.
- What does protection from everything do?
- Nothing can target it, enchant it, equip it, or block it, and all damage that would be dealt to it is prevented.
Official rule: Comprehensive Rules 702.16. More on where this rulebook comes from under Sources.
Often seen with
FlyingFirst strikeTrampleHasteFlash
Which cards with Protection do you own? →
Last updated: 26 October 2026